Wednesday, August 16, 2006

So... we moved... and we're breaking up the bookshelves (because we no longer have one really long wall to put them all on). So... now I have to decide which books will be downstairs and which ones will be in the guest bedroom. I know all the crafty books will be in the guest bedroom but what else?!

Also, this is creating havoc with my system for entering my books into Library Thing. I think it might just be time to take all weekend and catalog my brain out.

Anyway, you don't care about that. Here are some reviews! I'm soooooooooooooooooooo far behind that I'm just going to group them into order in which I read them. We're still back in June people!

So...Winnie Foster runs away from home and finds the fountain of immortality and the family that drank from it and is faced with the choice to also drink from it or grow up and die...

But it's beautifully written and a classic for a reason. I can't stress enough the beautiful and wonderful command Babbit has for language and imagery. It's a book you want to sink down into on a still, hot, summer day. One of Silvey's 100 Best Books for Children.

This is the story of Shirley Temple Wong's first year in America. It's also the year that Jackie Robinson lead the Dodgers to victory. With twelve chapters (one for each month) we see as Shirley adjusts and adapts as she moves from the large family compound in China to a small apartment in Brooklyn (and how Brooklyn adjusts to her!). Funny and heart-warming... this is also one of Silvey's 100 Best, and with good reason!

Another one of the 100 Best... this is the story about the summer Opal moves to town and has no friends, but meets an ugly mutt of a dog that introduces her to the townfolk. Sweet and moving in a dog-story tyle way. Not really my cup of tea, but well-enough written that I am looking forward to reading other books by DiCamillo that have a plot that is more to my liking...

Sequel to The Dim Sum of All Things but even better. Funny, light Chinese-American San Fransisco chic lit with crazy escapes, a Chinese James Dean, search for ethnic identity and bi-racial relationships all mixed in. But I really missed her friend from the first book, who is sadly absent in this one. I'm totally blanking on the name. Sorry.

Esperanza lives a life of luxury in Mexico, but then her father is tragically killed and she and her mom flee to California, where they have to become field workers. A riches-to-rags story. Then her mom gets sick and Esperanza has to finally stand on her own.

This is really good and really well written, but man, I just really hated Esperanza. She was such a BITCH. But I can't fault Munoz Ryan, because I think the characters reactions and feelings were completely true to someone in her situation but I really wanted to smack her. Badly.

I then read Suite Française but I'm not going to talk about it now because it was seriously one of the best things I've read in years and desrves lots of space. Needless to say, you should read it. NOW.